2018 Gold’s Challenge

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2014 golds before after

My before & after photos from the 2014 Gold’s Gym Challenge. So Yeah, I’m a believer in this challenge.

Once again I’ve sighed up for the 2018 Gold’s Challenge. This is my 3rd time and I do love challenges. In my effort to loose my post surgery pounds, I’m off to a slow start. I feel I’ve finally righted my diet (no more eating out and no alcohol).

When it comes to losing inches, I need to jump start my exercise routine. Right now I’m more turtle than hare.

To be fair, I wanted to see the results of my 3D body scan before coming up with a plan of attack. While I want to do full body workouts, there is a part of me that wants to target my abs and thighs.

My doctor told me it would take a year for my abs to fully recover from surgery. He wasn’t kidding. It’s been a year and a half and while my abs are stronger, there’s still a lot of exercises I either can’t do (like that damn Roman chair leg raise) or am limited in how many I can do (I’m looking at you sit ups). Read More

Savor The Victories No Matter How Small

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skinny-jeans-2

Post-surgery victory this morning. I can officially fit back into my skinny jeans!

Since surgery I’ve dreaded trying on my skinny jeans. Mostly because of pain. Abdominal surgery isn’t fun and thanks to the hysterectomy, it takes my body a long time to rebound. Everyday at 2:00 p.m. my waist starts bloating and the area around the incisions start getting sore. At that point off go the yoga pants and on goes the oversized cotton dresses.

Once I could start wearing pants again, I’ve stuck mostly to yoga pants. Soft and stretchy, what’s not to love. I also never got around to tossing out my size 16 jeans. They are big on me, but at least there is comfort around the waist.

But those 16s, nearly 4 months post surgery, helped me put off the inevitable. Sure my yoga pants are size 14, but they do stretch.  I’ve put off trying on my pixie pants or skinny jeans (the Holy Grail for us fatties).

With the stress of recovering from radiation, dealing with menopause and the 10 extra pounds, the last thing I wanted to do was add another thing to worry about. But putting it off just added to my anxiety. In the back of my mind I knew I’d have to try getting into my regular clothes. The anxiety was there, I just chose not to recognize it.

Well this morning I opened my closet and realized I need to do some laundry. The only pair of pants left hanging were my size 14 skinny jeans and pixies. I have a lot of errands to run today. And on this cold, windy morning a dress just doesn’t cut it. It was time to bite the bullet.

With the slightest of  hops and jumps, I got them on. The big bonus was buttoning the skinny jeans without sucking in my gut (woot!!).

I know that I’ll rip them off in a few hours, but this was a victory and I’m going to savor it.

Weight Loss & Wedding Rings

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new ring

A new ring to rule them all…yep I got my new wedding band for Valentine’s and lost nearly 4 sizes in the process. Yay!

My husband surprised me on Valentine’s Day with a new wedding band. I haven’t worn my wedding band or engagement ring since April 2013. That’s when I tried to dry my hands by frantically waiving them in the air the rings flew off my finger. Thankfully I was home at the time and found them.

After that incident, I put my rings up for safekeeping thinking I can resize them once I hit goal. Turns out, resizing was out of the question due to how the stones were set within the band. Grrrr!

So nearly 3 years later, I’m down 145 pounds and have 30 more to go, but the husband thought enough time passed and I needed a new wedding band.

I settled on a band similar to the original — sapphires and diamonds (stones not embedded into the band) but with white instead of yellow gold. The big shock came when measuring my finger. I went from a size 10-1/2 to 6-3/4.

Yikes! I was so busy focusing on losing weight in the obvious places — stomach, thighs, bat wings arms, and butt — I never expected fat loss from my hands.

But I’m not complaining. All weight loss victories are welcome.

 

 

My Food Scale “Is No More. It Has Ceased To Be.”

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My little food scale finally died on me today after nearly 4 years together.

My little food scale – one of the most important tools in my weight loss efforts — finally died on me today after nearly 4 years together.

Sad news this afternoon. My trusty food scale weighed its last grams of kale. After trying three 3 different batteries, I’ve finally accepted that my food scale is no more.

Out of all my kitchen tools, gadgets and appliances, the only two I’ve used more than my food scale these last 3-1/2 years are the refrigerator and stove.

That’s just how I roll.

I picked up that little Weight Watcher’s scale at the start of my journey in 2012. Too bad it couldn’t make these last 20 or so pounds.

Tossing it in the trash seems like a dishonor. After all we’ve been through a lot these last few years. Perhaps a viking funeral is in order. That’s certainly better than this (NSFW).  Actually, the Pythons have the best send off:

I’ve Lost 60+ Inches…Now What To Do With All This Extra Skin?

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Broke out the measuring tape this morning and discovered I lost 2.75 inches in nearly 3 months! Image courtesy of FreeDigitalphotos.net and zirconicusso.

Broke out the measuring tape this morning and discovered I lost 2.75 inches in nearly 3 months! Image courtesy of FreeDigitalphotos.net and zirconicusso.

Over the last 10 weeks I’ve lost nearly 3 inches from my body, for a grand total of 60.25 inches since I started my quest to get healthy over 3 years ago.

Not too shabby. No wonder I can now fit into size 14 jeans.

This recent loss came from my hips, thighs and chest. No change this time around for my waist and arms.

While I’m excited about losing the inches, I’ve noticed one part of my body not shrinking — my loose skin. In fact, it’s getting worse. Read More

Weekly Weigh-In: Stubborn Scale, Loose Clothes

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Sure my weight's the same for 3 weeks running. But my waist continues it's downward trend.

Sure my weight’s the same for 3 weeks running. But my waist continues its downward trend.

For the third week my weight is exactly the same while an item of clothing — my running belt — is definitely looser than normal. How loose? While running on Saturday I noticed I had to keep adjusting it. First the belt started falling, so I quickly pulled it up. After a 1/4 mile, I noticed it about 1 inch higher than where I pulled it. About a 1/2 mile later when I went to adjust the volume on my phone, I noticed that my phone was no longer in front of me…it was on my back.

Sweet!

Before yesterday’s walk, I adjusted the buckle to tighten the belt to prevent my phone from floating around my body. Turns out the next time this happens, I’ll need a new belt. Yep, the belt is officially at its smallest size.  Double sweet!

Sooner or later the scale will follow my shrinking waistline.

For now, it’s time for another run.

Time To Breakout The Tape Measure

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October 14, 2014 — That’s the last time I took my measurements. Ugh! I really need to work on doing this once a month. Heck, once a quarter would even be an improvement. While the wait was “worth” it, 7 months is still far too long between measurements. I really do believe the tape measure is a far superior tool than the scale in evaluating my weight loss efforts. But my actions tell a different tale.

Anyway, time for the awesome news: Since October I’ve lost 6.5 inches from my chest, arms, waist and hips.

May 1 2015 measurementsThat puts my total inches lost at 57.5 inches! Sweet! Read More

Setting My Final Goal Weight – It’s All About Happiness

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Just had my physical and decided to chat with my doctor about setting a weight loss goal. His answer surprised me. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and hyena reality.

Just had my physical and took the opportunity to chat with my doctor about setting a final weight loss goal. His awesome answer surprised me. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and hyena reality.

When I went in for my physical in 2014, I weighed 215 pounds. For my 2015 physical I tipped the scales at 189. I’m down 26 pounds in a year. I set a mini-goal of getting under 190 before I met with my doctor for my physical. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face when I saw that number.

As for sitting down with my doctor, I had one thing on my mind:  finally nailing down my goal weight. What’s a healthy weight for woman my height and age?

But first up, the blood work.

For the 3rd year in a row all my health numbers were awesome. Giving up simple carbs (quick digesting carbs) truly turned my health around. I’m off the blood pressure meds, I’ve lost 136 pounds total, and I’m no longer at risk for type 2 diabetes or dropping from a heart attack.

I’m just super! Read More

2014 Weight Loss & Wellness Goals – How’d I do?

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With 2014 coming to a close, it's time to take a look back and see how successful I was in hitting my weight loss, wellness and fitness goals. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles and Freedigitalphoto.net.

With 2014 coming to a close, it’s time to take a look back and see how successful I was in hitting my weight loss, wellness and fitness goals. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles and Freedigitalphoto.net.

It’s the time of the year where people start making resolutions and taking stock of their weight and health. Well, when it comes to weight loss, I prefer setting measurable goals.

The beauty of setting personal goals is that you don’t have to wait until New Year’s Day to make or revise them. As you evolve, so do your goals.

In January 2014 I set some specific weight loss, fitness, beauty and wellness goals. And every so often I re-evaluated those goals to improve habits, recalibrate expectations or make adjustments to my food and exercise plans.

So before it’s in with the new goals, let’s take a look at the old and how 2014 panned out for me. Read More

So How Fit Are You?

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Knocking off 130 pounds and 16 inches off my waist adds 20+ years to my life. A pretty good trade I'd say.

Knocking off 130 pounds and 16 inches off my waist adds 20+ years to my life. A pretty good trade I’d say.

So does your weight and fitness level make you older or younger than you’re age? Well now you can take a test to find out.  It comes from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.  It’s pretty easy. You just plug-in some basic info (race, sex, age, height, waist size, resting pulse rate).

Why Knowing Your Fitness Age Matters?
The folks that put this calculator together say it’s a good indicator of how long you’ll live. Also, if it indicates you are much older physically than your age, you can do something about it. It’s always better to have your head out of the sand.

Dot’s Fitness Age Is…
At my last physical my doctor told me I added about 20 years to my life. That would put my fitness age somewhere around late 20s/early 30s.  So I decided to put this fitness calculator to the test. Read More